From serious home recordists to multi-platinum mix engineers, UAD Powered Plug-Ins have been winning over audio professionals for more than 10 years. The reason is simple. No other plug-ins so faithfully capture the sound and behavior of classic analog equipment — from rare compressors and equalizers, to vintage reverb processors and tape machines.

The UAD library features over 90 plug-ins, co-developed with the biggest brands in audio. These plug-ins can be purchased with UAD-2 hardware from retailers as part of bundled packages, or you can buy UAD plug-ins à la carte from UA’s Online Store.

The UAD-2 Satellite can be integrated alongside UAD-2 PCIe DSP Accelerator cards and the UAD Apollo interface, for truly scalable mixing power. And because it’s portable, the UAD-2 Satellite lets you travel with your UAD plug-ins, wherever you mix on a FireWire-equipped Mac or PC.

Available as Core or Custom Software Packages

The Core package includes the Analog Classics plug-in bundle, while Custom includes the Analog Classics bundle, and a choice of any three individual UAD plug-ins at registration.

Founded in 1958 by Bill Putnam Sr., Universal Audio has been synonymous with innovative recording products since its inception. A favorite engineer of Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Ray Charles and more, the late Bill Putnam Sr. was a passionate innovator who is widely regarded as the father of modern recording — with many of his legendary studio and equipment designs still in use today.

Specifically, Putnam was the inventor of the modern recording console, the multi-band audio equalizer, and the vocal booth, and he was the first engineer to use artificial reverberation in commercial recording. Alongside his friend Les Paul, Putnam was also involved in the early development of stereophonic recording.

Putnam, a natural entrepreneur, started three audio product companies during his long career: Universal Audio, Studio Electronics, and UREI. All three companies built equipment that remains widely used decades after their introduction, including the ubiquitous LA-2A and 1176 compressors, and the 610 tube recording console. The 610 console in particular stands as one of the most beloved designs in audio history, used to record everyone from Sinatra to the Beach Boys to Van Halen’s eponymous debut.

Re-founded in 1999

Universal Audio was re-founded in 1999 by Bill's sons, James Putnam and Bill Putnam Jr., with two main goals: to faithfully reproduce classic analog recording equipment in the tradition of their father; and to design new digital recording tools in with the sound and spirit of vintage analog technology. To that end, Universal Audio employs the world's brightest DSP engineers and digital modeling authorities to develop our award-winning UAD Powered Plug-Ins platform. Featuring the most authentic analog emulation plug-ins in the industry, our DSP gurus work with the original hardware manufacturers — using their exact schematics, golden units, and experienced ears — to give UAD plug-ins warmth and harmonics in all the right places, just like analog.